An update to the VOCALOID4 engine has been confirmed and will be completely handled by Shanghai HENIAN.[2]

Tianyi is the grand winning entry of the "VOCALOID™ CHINA" contest which was held for choosing the design of the first Chinese VOCALOID. Her voice is provided by Shan Xin (山新 / 王宥霁 Wáng Yòujì), a Chinese voice actress who is able to speak Mandarin and Japanese.

Contents

According to her short anime series, Luo Tianyi is an angel who came to earth with a mission to spread music throughout the world. Tianyi can detect "the song of your heart" (心中的歌声) and it can be interpreted as the strongest emotion a person has at the moment or a melody that represents them. Even if people cannot express the melody themselves, Tianyi can still hear it and sing it.

Her personality is a bit introvert, but she is still the type of girl who has a lot of empathy and does not give up easily. She admires the VOCALOIDs from the past and dreams of the day she can do just the same as them – using songs to bring happiness to the world. While she cannot communicate with humans due to the language barrier between humans and VOCALOIDs, she is very sensitive to others' emotions and can use songs to express her own emotions and thoughts.

Her original name was Yayin Gongyu (雅音宫羽), however, this was dropped because it was written in a Japanese naming style rather than Chinese.

Luò Tiānyī: Luo is the name of a river in China, but the name may have come from the last name of a goddess (Luoshen, 洛神) who appeared in ancient Chinese legends. The goddess plays instruments and is considered to be the goddess of the river, "Luò Shuǐ" (洛水). Tian (天) means "sky" or "heaven", but it also may have come from Tianlai (天籁), "sounds from heaven", which is used in China to describe the most beautiful voices. Yi (依) means "rely" or "depend on", but it is also short for Yiren (伊人), which means "fair lady", "soft lady", or "delicate lady" in ancient Chinese. It is also possible that it derived from "Yángliǔ Yīyī" (杨柳依依), or "delicate willow".

The design was originally drawn by MOTH, but was refined and redrawn by ideolo, a Chinese illustrator.

Located on Tianyi's neck, there is a green jade charm with a Sanskrit character on it. This represents the "Water" element, the "North" position, the color "Blue", and the "Winter" season. This character also appears on her logo, which represents a crystal, and its Chinese equivalent is "羽" (Yu), one of the 5 Traditional Chinese melody characters.[3]

Luo Tianyi became popular in China as there is a large fandom in the country. However, in the West, she is not noticed as much, where many videos carry less than 5,000 views on YouTube. In Japan, Tianyi was accepted and received relatively well, but her videos on Niconico Douga still do not receive many views. Although she is Chinese, which often suffers from issues of racism between China and countries like Japan and South Korea; there was very little racial backlash towards Tianyi compared to SeeU's Japanese backlash.

In 2013, Tianyi had a large peak in popularity around February during the Chinese New Year.[5]

In April 2015, Pǔtōng DISCO, a duet song between Tianyi and YANHE, reached 1 million views on bilibili. In the same month and year, Quán Yù Tiānxià became the first Tianyi solo song to have 1 million views.

In July 2016, Tianyi's V4 design was revealed and was presented as a possible design. Due to the Chinese fans' negative reactions toward her new design, particularly due to her missing iconic design elements such as the flower in her hair, her angel wing, and her light shade of blue in the V3 design, SHN stated they may change the design.[6]

Achievements

First Chinese capable VOCALOID

First female Chinese VOCALOID

First VOCALOID from Shanghai HENIAN

First female VOCALOID from Shanghai HENIAN

First VOCALOID to have an OVA series

First Chinese VOCALOID to perform live

First VOCALOID to perform with a VOCALOID of another company and language

First Chinese VOCALOID to have a video game

First Chinese VOCALOID developed by Bplats

Polls

Do you like Luo Tianyi?

Yes.

453

No.

3

Indifferent.

14

The poll was created at 23:26 on November 19, 2015, and so far 470 people voted.

Please wait, submitting your vote...

What characteristic of Luo Tianyi do you like?

Appearance.

33

Voice.

31

Name.

10

All of the above.

393

The poll was created at 00:14 on November 20, 2015, and so far 467 people voted.